Family Dollar Tree General

A retail merger melee shouldn't be decided by the antitrust cops.

Sept. 11, 2014 7:31 pm ET

The dollar-store boom of recent years is a commentary on the state of the American economy. So is the fact that federal antitrust regulators may decide which of two corporate suitors is allowed to buy the Family Dollar chain.

On Wednesday Dollar General—the unrequited suitor in this ultra-discount retailer love triangle—made a $9.1 billion hostile-takeover bid, tendering $80 a share. Putting the all-cash offer in front of Family Dollar investors is an attempt to torpedo an earlier July agreement between the Family Dollar and...